FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974)

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974), Updated as of January 8, 2009

Issues that pertain to faculty: 1. What is FERPA? Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 2. Why do I need to know about FERPA? Sinclair Community College and all its employees are required to comply with this law. 3. What does FERPA do? Provides students the following guarantees regarding the access and confidentiality of their education records: a. Right to access all their education records, except i. Parent’s financial information ii. Information about other students iii. Confidential information if they waive their right to access b. Right to inspect and challenge education record contents c. Right to control disclosure of education record contents, unless a specific exemption applies 4. When do I need to take FERPA into consideration? a. Answering a student’s questions about their performance or records b. Answering a parent or spouse’s questions about a student’s performance or records c. Answering questions posed by a non “School Official” about a student’s performance or records d. Releasing student information to other “School Officials” e. Sharing Directory Information within a Class: attendance, peer grading, posting grades, sharing email addresses, multi-party emails f. Writing recommendations SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09

5. Definitions to know: a. Am I a “School Official”? i. Faculty (including adjunct), staff, administration, student workers, coaches, contractors, consultants, volunteers – any individual providing an institutional service or function at Sinclair ii. School officials have no inherent rights to access a student’s educational records. They may access them if they have a “need to know” or a “legitimate educational interest”. b. What is a “need to know” or “legitimate education interest”? i. FERPA allows each institution to establish its own definition of a “Legitimate Educational Interest”. Sinclair’s definition can be found in the FERPA materials at www.sinclair.edu/services/registration/policies. ii. According to Sinclair’s policy, a “Legitimate Educational Interest” is the school official’s need to know in order to: ♦ Perform an administrative task outlined in the official’s position description or contract approved by the Sinclair Community College Board of Trustees; ♦ Perform a supervisory or instructional task directly related to the student’s education; or ♦ Perform a service or benefit for the student such as counseling, student job placement, or student financial aid. ♦ For example, pertinent faculty with a legitimate educational interest may be notified when a student has admitted to plagiarism. iii. The FERPA Compliance Office will generally defer to the college’s determination that disclosure is within the job responsibility of the person to whom the information was disclosed. c. Who is a “Student”? i. An individual who is receiving or has received instruction in an on or off-campus program, including an activity that is evaluated toward a grade such as a work study program, an academic internship, or a student exchange program. ii. The individual can be attending in person or by paper correspondence, videoconference, satellite, Internet, or other electronic information and telecommunications technologies for students who are not physically present in the classroom.

2 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 iii. The term does not apply to an individual prior to or subsequent to an individual’s period of attendance at the college such as a candidate for admission, an alumnus, or a postgraduate intern in another institution. iv. The definition includes all credit and non-credit, degree or non- degree seeking students of all ages. v. An individual acquires FERPA rights at the time they become a student and keeps those rights until they are deceased. d. What is an “Education Record”? i. With certain exceptions, all records identifying students maintained by Sinclair in any medium, including handwritten, print, tape, film, microfilm/fiche, or any form of electronic data storage. ii. Education Records are NOT: ♦ Employment records except records of individuals employed as a result of their status as students are education records – e.g. work-study. ♦ Law enforcement records maintained by Campus Security ♦ Medical records ♦ Alumni records ♦ “Sole Possession” records e. What are “Sole Possession” records? i. Any personal record you maintain in your capacity as a Sinclair employee, which is ♦ made by you as a personal memory aid, ♦ kept in your sole possession, and ♦ never revealed or made available to any other person except your temporary substitute. f. What is “Directory Information” at Sinclair? i. The student’s name ii. The student’s date and place of birth iii. Dates of enrollment iv. Participation in officially recognized activities and sports; including special honors, distinctions, and awards v. Weight and height of student athletes vi. The student’s major field of study vii. Degrees or certificates earned viii. Most recent previous educational institution ix. Address, including email address

3 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 x. Phone number xi. Digitally captured identification photo

“Directory Information” does NOT include: i. Race ii. Gender iii. Social Security Number iv. Student ID# v. Grades vi. GPA vii. Country of Citizenship viii. Religion 6. Best Practices for Sinclair Faculty a. Student’s Request: You must release a student’s educational record to that student upon their request – no signature is necessary. i. You are not required to release your own sole possession records. ii. Oral request in public place: ♦ In situations where a student requests information about their educational record in a non-secure setting, where the answer can be overheard by other people, you are permitted to answer the question, but not to provide any unsolicited information. You may encourage the student to come to your office to discuss the matter further in a more private setting. iii. Telephone requests: ♦ Although no signature is necessary to release educational record information directly to the student, you must be sure that it is the student making the request. FERPA requires you to use a reasonable method to identify and authenticate the identity of students prior to disclosure. ♦ If you cannot determine the student’s identity, do not comply over the phone. FERPA gives you 45 days to release information, so immediate release upon request is not mandatory. iv. Leaving Voicemails for Students: ♦ If you phone a student and reach their voicemail, it is best to state only their name, the fact that they are in your class and your name and contact information. Leaving a more detailed message runs the risk of disclosing information to someone other than the student. b. Parental Request: i. When a student enrolls as a postsecondary student, they acquire FERPA rights, so information from the student’s educational record may be disclosed to parents only under certain circumstances.

4 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 ii. You may release information to any parent not included in b(iii) below only if the student has signed a written release permitting release to that party. iii. You may release information to parents of dependent students. ♦ Check with the Director, Registration & Student Records, to determine if the student fits in the dependent category before disclosure may be made to those parent(s). iv. You may also release information to a parent regardless of the student’s dependency status in connection with a health or safety emergency. v. The form for authorization of release of information is located online at http://OurSinclair/Forms/Registration/FERPA. c. Request by a Spouse: i. You may release information to a spouse only if the student has signed a written release permitting release to that person. ii. The FERPA Compliance Office will permit release of information to a student’s spouse in connection with a health or safety emergency. iii. The form for authorization of release of information is located online at http://OurSinclair/Forms/Registration/FERPA. d. Request by a Non-School Official: i. You may release directory information unless the student has placed a “Directory Hold” on their educational records. ii. A “Directory Hold” may be created by a student during the first month of every academic quarter by notifying the FERPA Coordinator in writing that they will not permit release of directory information. iii. You will know there is a directory hold in place when you open the student’s records in Colleague. Initial access to each page of their records will be blocked by a pop-up screen stating, “Everything secured, please do not release data.” iv. You may release educational record information to a non-school official only if the student has signed a written release permitting release to that party, except in the following circumstances: ♦ Lawfully issued subpoenas (check with the Director, Registration & Student Records first) ♦ Health and/or safety emergency: a. The college must determine that an “articulable and significant threat” exists prior to disclosure. b. In the case of a health and/or safety emergency, disclosure may be made to any person, whose knowledge of information is necessary to protect health and safety of the student or others, including release to student’s parents. The Family Policy

5 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 Compliance Office (the FERPA regulatory compliance office of the US Department of Education) will permit release of information to a student’s spouse. v. The form for authorization of release of information is located online at http://OurSinclair/Forms/Registration/FERPA. e. Releasing student information to other school officials: You may release a student’s educational record to other Sinclair school officials if they have a legitimate educational interest. f. Sharing Directory Information within a Class: i. Attendance: ♦ Taking roll orally is permissible - even if a student has a directory hold placed on their directory Information. ♦ Taking roll by passing around a sign in sheet or class roster is permissible - so long as a fresh sign in sheet or class roster is used for every class session. Do not include either students’ social security numbers or student ID numbers on the sheet. ♦ Even if a student has a directory hold placed on their directory information, it is permissible to use their name in class. ♦ The right to opt-out of disclosure of directory information does not allow a student to remain anonymous in a class or impede routine classroom communications, whether in person or online. ii. Multi-party emails: ♦ If you are discussing student’s education record information or informing Registration of grade changes, you may not send emails to multiple parties, because that would disclose information to third parties without the necessary written permission. ♦ You may send grade change requests for multiple students to Registration, but you may not copy all the students. Each student must see their grade only and no one else’s. iii. Peer Grading: ♦ Peer-graded papers that have not been collected and the grades recorded by the teacher are not considered to be part of a student’s educational record. iv. Student Access to Graded Papers: ♦ Leaving a stack of graded papers in a box outside your office for students to pick up at their convenience is a violation of FERPA,

6 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 because a student would be able to discover grades other than his own and possibly acquire other student’s identifying information. v. Posting grades: ♦ Faculty may not use a. names, b. student social security numbers, c. student ID numbers or d. any other personal tracking number to post grades. ♦ If a number is used to post grades, it must be generated only for that class and should not be easy to link with the student (i.e., don’t use a phone number). vi. Sharing email addresses: ♦ Faculty utilizing electronic teaching tools or teaching an online class may wish to share students’ email addresses with others in the same class. ♦ This is permissible, so long as the course description discloses that class communication and participation will be facilitated by use of email. a. Students who object strenuously can establish a separate email account, used specifically for the class in question. g. Writing recommendations: i. In the absence of a signed written release, you may include only directory information in a reference letter. ii. In order to include anything other than directory information, you must have a signed written release from the student. An email is not sufficient. The FERPA Release Form for Letters of Recommendation is located in http://OurSinclair/Forms/Registration/FERPA. iii. A student request for a letter of recommendation does not give you carte blanche to review their records. iv. Include the following statement in all letters of recommendation: NOTIFICATION TO RECIPIENTS OF PRIVATE INFORMATION

NOTICE: The attached information has been forwarded to you at the request of the student. This information may not be released to other parties. State or federal law prohibits release of this information without the individual’s written consent. Please return this material to us if you are unable to comply with this condition of release.

7 SCC Faculty FERPA update 4/1/09 7. Items to remember: a. Check with the FERPA Coordinator for a signed release on file before discussing student educational record/progress information with non-school officials e.g. parents, spouses, employers, landlords, etc. b. Remember to request a signed release from the student for all letters of recommendation, good student status information, etc. that require non- directory educational record information. c. Close files, computer screens, cover papers, close office door, etc whenever leaving your work station or when non-school officials may be present so that third parties do not have access to student educational record information. d. Do not post lists of information containing student educational records (grade lists, credit completed, ethnic/religious groups). e. Contact Registration and Student Records or check Colleague for directory holds before releasing directory information; do not indicate to the requestor that the student is in attendance until you have checked for the hold. f. Conduct an “Office Audit”: Make certain that fax machines, printers, copy machines, computer screens are not in a public environment or positioned so that third parties have access to student educational record information. g. Providing students access to their educational record information usually does not require that you give them a copy. 8. Questions? a. Contact the Director, Registration & Student Records (aka the FERPA Coordinator)